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Huawei's Honor 5C is a pretty and powerful package, with dual SIM to boot (hands-on)

Huawei wants the Honor 5C to catch your eye with its brushed-metal chassis -- and then reel you in with its £150 price tag.

Katie Collins Senior European Correspondent
Katie a UK-based news reporter and features writer. Officially, she is CNET's European correspondent, covering tech policy and Big Tech in the EU and UK. Unofficially, she serves as CNET's Taylor Swift correspondent. You can also find her writing about tech for good, ethics and human rights, the climate crisis, robots, travel and digital culture. She was once described a "living synth" by London's Evening Standard for having a microchip injected into her hand.
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Katie Collins
2 min read

Huawei offshoot Honor is bringing its latest smartphone to Europe. The Honor 5C is all about wowing potential buyers with the killer combination of high-octane power and an eye-catchingly low price. It's just £150 in the UK -- that converts to about $220 or AU$295, although a release has yet to be announced in the US or Australia.

Available in grey, silver and gold, the phone's all-metal body is clad in brushed aluminium and from the back is reminiscent of the HTC One M9 -- a slick-looking phone that really nailed it in the design department. The square 13-megapixel camera that sits on the rear not only promises to take great photos, but has a special coating that Honor says will reduce glare and prevent fingerprints from causing blur. It's accompanied by an 8-megapixel selfie snapper on the front.

The 5C isn't all about photography though. It has impressive features and specs across the board. These include two quad-core processors and a dual SIM-card slot, which will come in particularly handy if you're a frequent traveller.

The 5C has been out in China for some time now, where dual SIM-card slots are common. This is not so much the case in Europe, even though there are undoubtedly phone users here who might appreciate the option to switch between SIMs. All the better for Honor -- being able to offer this unusual feature will help it stand out in the otherwise crowded European smartphone market.

Honor 5C brings two SIMs and octa-core power
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Another major selling point is the 5C's £150 price tag. From 20 June you can buy the phone SIM-free online from Honor, Amazon and a number of other retail sites. Alternatively, the 5C will be available on pay as you go or on contract from Three starting in August.

Key specs

  • Quad-core 2.0GHz processor, plus quad-core 1.7GHz processor
  • 2GB of RAM
  • 16GB of onboard storage (expandable with a microSD up to 128GB)
  • 3,000 mAh battery
  • 5.2-inch Full-HD IPS display
  • 13-megapixel rear camera with flash-capable HDR mode
  • 8-megapixel front-facing camera
  • Dual SIM-card slots